Violence against women: An observational study in an Italian emergency department

Abstract

Violence against women is a pervasive phenomenon affecting one in three women aged ≥15 in the world that are more likely to visit an emergency department (ED) for the serious physical and psychological consequences of the abuse. The aim of this observational single-centre study is to describe the socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with violence against women. We enrolled 425 female patients who attended an Italian ED for trauma on 2019 and the patients' information was collected and analyzed with descriptive statistics. The average age of the patients was 41.5 (standard deviation = 14.2) years. 74.6% of the women were Italians, and 86.6% were of metropolitan origin. The reasons for the ED visit included aggression (67.5%), accidental trauma (29.0%) and unknown reasons (3.5%). Multivariate analysis confirmed that three factors were independently associated with violence: nationality (odds ratio [OR] = 0.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.09–0.77), head/face/neck injuries (OR = 7.32; 95% CI, 3.76–14.27) and multiple injuries (OR = 8.52; 95% CI, 1.03–70.47). Age over 25 was a protective factor. The study confirmed that being a foreigner and having head/face/neck injuries or multiple injuries are associated with violence against women.